Reddit Collectible Avatars
Reddit has now established its own NFT platform, dubbed “Reddit Collectible Avatars.” What are they, and why has it gathered over $11 million in trade volume?
Reddit Collectible Avatars NFT Best Guide 2023: Contrary to common assumption, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have existed since 2012, with many assuming that the initial types of NFTs were so-called Colored Coins – tiny denominations of Bitcoin, or Satoshis, intended to represent immutable digital or real-world commodities on the Bitcoin network.
Rare Pepe memes, CryptoPunks, and CryptoKitties on the Ethereum network, which has higher capabilities than Bitcoin’s scripting language, were popular NFT collections in 2017.
However, one might argue that NFTs finally entered the mainstream in 2021, when sales volume hit $24.9 billion, a staggering 261x increase over just $94.9 million in 2020. With it, we witnessed NFT markets like OpenSea and its myriad of rivals, a record $69.3 million digital art auction by crypto artist Beeple, “blue-chip” NFT collections like one inspired by monkeys, and infinite imitations that might put the counterfeit luxury industry to shame.
As the eventful (and we don’t mean that in a good way) 2022 unfolded, the crypto market entered a bear market — Bitcoin and Ethereum lost over 70% of their value, while many other altcoins dropped 90% — and this has decreased demand for NFTs.
Looking at the sales volume (USD) of NFTs, one can observe that it has been steadily declining, decreasing by more than 80% since the beginning of the year. Unique purchasers have likewise suffered, with the sole consolation being that the numbers have fairly steadied in the 30,000-50,000 area.
Despite this, Reddit’s NFT initiative, dubbed as ‘Reddit Collectible Avatar,’ has found success in the middle of a bad market. So, what exactly is Reddit’s NFT initiative, how does it function, and why has it generated so much interest?
What Are Reddit Collectible Avatars?
Few networking networks are as popular as Reddit. Launched in 2005, the social network has established itself as a form of metaverse — before the phrase became as popular as it is now — since it comprises various sub-forums, also known as subreddits, dedicated to thousands of specialized groups.
To put Reddit’s massive size into perspective, it has 430 million active monthly users and 52 million daily users. As a result, it was a significant thing when Reddit revealed its ambitions to enter the NFT market in June 2021. The social network released the CryptoSnoos NFTs, a collectible inspired by Snoos, Reddit’s official mascot, and accessible on OpenSea.
Looking back, the 2021 launch appears to have been an effort to test the waters before going all in on NFTs. It is also reasonable to argue that it provided Reddit with enough information to identify how to effectively approach the volatile NFT area. Reddit has officially launched its more sophisticated NFT project, which will, in time, secure its place at the top of the NFT discourse, a year after the debut of Cryptosnoos.
The initiative, dubbed Reddit Limited Collectible Avatars, aimed to provide digital collectibles that integrated with the Reddit network. Users may buy these Collectible Avatars, alter them, use them as Reddit profile images, and more – all while holding these Polygon-based NFTs on Vaults, Reddit’s native, Ethereum-compatible wallet.
In its second effort to launch an NFT project, the social network abandons the terminology in favor of promoting them as “collectibles,” with the NFT and blockchain technology running in the background. Furthermore, these NFTs are now local to the Reddit platform, whereas CryptoSnoos NFTs were previously solely featured on OpenSea. Finally, these collectible Avatars are produced by independent Reddit designers, namely from the r/Comics and r/AdobeIllustrator communities, with all of the 30-plus collections currently sold out. However, unlike many other NFT initiatives, any Reddit users may still create customizable Avatars without their becoming NFTs, therefore there is no locked access.
How Do Reddit Collectible Avatars Work?
While Reddit has resisted the NFT designation, the truth remains that its digital collectibles are NFTs. In other words, they have the characteristics of an NFT in that they exist on the blockchain and are rare and transferrable. Furthermore, each Collectible Avatar has a unique set of qualities and rarity levels. The combination of these two qualities (rarity and attributes) defines the value of each Collectible Avatar on markets.
While this is obvious, Reddit has added features that appear to have increased the popularity of its NFTs. The first is that they are initially available at a predetermined price. To put it another way, the NFTs are not auctioned off. Furthermore, you do not require extensive knowledge of bitcoin or blockchain technology to access, acquire, or utilize these NFTs. You don’t even have to leave the Reddit site or possess bitcoin to acquire or enjoy the perks of having an Avatar – Avatars may be purchased with local fiat currencies.
So, where can you purchase these NFTs?
How to Buy Reddit Collectible Avatars
To begin, navigate to the Reddit Collectible Avatar Shop by clicking on your profile dropdown menu in the top right.
A pop-up window will display; click “Shop” to investigate and purchase these NFTs using credit or debit cards or other traditional payment methods.
Unfortunately, at the time of writing, all of the avatars offered on the Collectible Avatar Shop were sold out. You may have to purchase Reddit’s Limited Collectible Avatar on the secondary market. You may buy these NFTs on OpenSea, a marketplace that allows users to trade NFTs for cryptocurrencies.
To purchase a Reddit Collectible Avatar (or any other NFT) on OpenSea, you must first establish or possess a crypto wallet such as MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet, WalletConnect, or others.
MetaMask was utilized for this article, especially the MetaMask and Reddit mobile app to purchase and transfer the Collectible Avatar.
To begin, navigate to the Reddit Collectible Avatar collection page on OpenSea using the MetaMask mobile app browser.
Once purchased, go to OpenSea and click on the NFT you own to see a link in the “Description” page to connect it to your Reddit account.
You will be sent to the Reddit app, where you must establish a Reddit Vault, the social platform’s native wallet. This procedure is required for people who want to buy Reddit NFTs on OpenSea and utilize them on the Reddit platform.
Voila! You can use your NFT as your profile image once it has been uploaded to your Reddit Vault. When you add comments, your avatar glows. Avatar owners, according to Reddit, receive additional community benefits. According to the social network, people who possess Collectible Avatars get “special profile treatment and unique comment treatment on posts.”
Furthermore, the cash gained by the sale of these avatars on the primary market goes to the independent artist who developed them. Furthermore, the artists receive royalties when their works are resold on the secondary market.
It’s also worth noting that Reddit lets users create their avatars by combining several gears from the avatar builder website.
Another important aspect of Reddit’s Collectible Avatar is that it is built on the Polygon blockchain architecture, an Ethereum second-layer solution.
So the question is, why did Reddit choose Polygon?
Why Did Reddit Opt For Polygon?
Before deciding on Polygon, Reddit took into account two major considerations.
Transaction Cost and Scalability
There are various reasons why NFTs are having difficulty breaking into the general market. One of these issues is the scalability of the Ethereum network, which contains the largest NFT market. While Ethereum provides the security and decentralization that NFT aficionados seek, it is currently slow.
At the time of writing, the maximum capacity of the Ethereum base layer blockchain is 15 transactions per second. As a result, it’s no surprise that Ethereum has a history of network congestion, which frequently causes transaction costs to spike.
While recent upgrades like the Merge and EIP-1559 have shown movement in the right way, the lack of scalability has two major implications for Ethereum’s usefulness. The first is that transactions are much slower than with traditional payment methods such as Paypal. The other disadvantage is that using Ethereum is more expensive, especially when the network is congested.
As a result, layer-two solutions like Polygon have proposed and implemented methods to improve Ethereum’s performance. These solutions, more often than not, attempt to relieve Ethereum’s base layer by doing part of the processing necessary to validate transactions off-chain or on a second layer. Polygon, in particular, uses a variety of second-layer technologies to improve the efficiency of the Ethereum network, including ZK rollups and optimistic rollups, even though the present Polygon mainnet is a sidechain powered by its native coin, MATIC.
More crucially, Polygon can handle up to 65,000 transactions per second, which is a significant boost above Ethereum’s foundation layer’s 15 TPS.
As a result, Reddit chose a blockchain infrastructure that can manage big transaction volumes without incurring a major increase in costs.
Environmental Friendliness
Another critical concern is the need to ensure that blockchain adoption does not raise our carbon footprint needlessly.
The energy consumption of blockchains, particularly those that use the proof-of-work (PoW) consensus process, is a perennial source of contention in the cryptocurrency community. Critics argue that using blockchains contributes significantly to environmental catastrophes. As a result, businesses considering integrating blockchain technology are aiming to reduce their carbon footprints.
Polygon intends to become carbon-negative by 2022 and has promised $20 million to support green projects, offset its carbon impact, and purchase more carbon credits. According to Reddit, one of the reasons Polygon opted to build on the blockchain is its dedication to developing a green blockchain.
Top Reddit Collectible Avatars NFT
Keep in mind that Reddit Collectible Avatars are created by individual artists. These artists make limited editions and one-of-a-kind collections of Collectible Avatars with various themes and visual styles.
According to Pali Bhat, Reddit’s chief product officer, over 3 million people have established a Vault. 2.5 million individuals have opened these wallets to acquire NFTs. It is also worth noting that the Reddit Collectible Avatars have collected a trading volume of approximately $11.8 million. The three collections from this initiative that account for the lion’s share of the $10 million total volume are listed below.
Spooky Season: poieeeyee x Reddit Collectible Avatars
Redditor poieeeyee produced this Halloween-themed avatar collection. This series now leads the way in terms of trading volume, having sold 1,123 ETH (about $1.53 million) in NFTs.
The Senses x Reddit Collectible Avatars
Redditor Rojom created the second most popular avatar series. This series displays scary avatars on a foggy woodland backdrop. At the time of writing, this series has a transaction volume of 854 ETH ($1.16 million).
Foustlings x Reddit Collectible Avatars
Tyler Foust, a self-taught artist, created the third-best-performing collection for the Reddit Collectible Avatar project. Snoos in this series is designed mostly with squiggly lines. At the time of writing, the total volume of Foustings sold was 692 ETH (about $900 thousand).
FAQs – Reddit Collectible Avatars NFT
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Are Reddit Collectible Avatars Worth Keeping An Eye On?
Although determining the long-term success of NFTs is difficult, several specific aspects imply Reddit NFTs are worth keeping an eye on.
One may argue that the immensity of the Reddit platform will eventually have an impact on the value of Reddit’s NFTs. For what it’s worth, a platform with over 430 million active monthly users can generate the buzz needed to spur widespread adoption. Even if only a fourth of the monthly users purchased and used these avatars, the Reddit collectibles avatar would be one of the most successful NFT ventures ever.
However, for this to happen, the avatars must be desirable to possess. In other words, the benefits of having these avatars both inside and outside of the Reddit environment must be appealing to mainstream people. At this point, you may be asking if there are any use cases, prospective advantages, or exceptional circumstances that may cause the value of Reddit NFTs to expand exponentially.
Some of the variables that contribute to Reddit’s Collectible Avatars being NFTs are as follows:
An Endless Array of Rarity
One of the benefits of owning a Reddit NFT is that it allows users to modify their avatars as they see suitable. You may select to combine qualities from two or more NFTs you own. The ability to mix, match, and exchange gears or qualities expands options and opens up new vistas for rarity trading.
A Massive Target Market
As previously said, Reddit is a massive site in terms of pure size. In other words, the Reddit NFT initiative already possesses what rivals need – a wide audience. It’s even more astounding when you realize Reddit doesn’t have to worry about losing market share to other NFTs. Reddit just needs to keep people engaged in its social network and the functionality of its avatars.
Conventional Marketing Strategy
Notably, Reddit avoided using technical blockchain terminology in its marketing strategy, as shown in the post announcing the debut of the Collectible Avatars.
Instead, Reddit has chosen to call its goods digital collectible avatars, making potential purchasers feel more at ease with the concept of owning one. Furthermore, the ability to purchase these NFTs in local currencies makes them more accessible to the average user.
Possibility of Becoming Vintage NFTs
The genesis collection may grow more difficult to find and more costly as time goes on as more Reddit avatars are created, depending on how long the Reddit platform is in operation. In CS: GO, the most sought-after in-game items are some of the vintage gun skins.
Enterprise Collaborations
Depending on how popular Reddit Collectible Avatars develop, there may be a possibility here for other businesses. Instead of building their NFT solutions from scratch, they can partner with Reddit and capitalize on its existing market to test the viability of their products. To evaluate its appeal to a general audience, a fashion manufacturer may opt to introduce NFT-based items on Reddit.
Additional Blockchain Implementations
Things might get much more fascinating if Reddit incorporates further blockchain implementations, such as on-chain governance and a fully integrated marketplace. Users will have additional reasons to own these avatars as a result of this.
Disclaimer
The datasets presented in this article were assembled from a variety of internet sources and do not represent TrendoInvest research on the subject. Please bear in mind that the material in this article is not financial or investment advice. The information in this article is strictly the author’s opinion and should not be interpreted as trading or investment advice. We make no assurances about the completeness, trustworthiness, or accuracy of this content. The cryptocurrency market is notorious for its tremendous volatility and irregular moves. Before investing, any investor, trader, or the regular crypto user should perform comprehensive research and get familiar with any local regulations.
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